Rampop II wrote:

By the way, I'm not talking about you, JJ. You never did that to me. JJ recommended books and talked about books, turned me on to the Illuminatis Trilogy and the Church of the Subgenius, and I learned a lot about Aldous Huxley through our conversations, but I never got the feeling I was being shamed for not keeping pace.

I only do that with certain Pharoah Sanders albums.

Twenty pages left of Dracula. 

I'm not sure if I can do it.

I'm trying to remember what classic book I once stopped reading with one page left. I remember really hating that one but my memory is failing me.

Maybe I will leave the last sentence of Dracula, unread, just to make some kind of point.
 

Finished Dracula!
Spoiler: He dies.
 

So, I've been reading my 87–page lease at my (shitty) new place. Check out this clause from section 25. MISCELLANEOUS:

25.8. Photograph Release. Residents give permission to Owner to use any photograph or photographic 
image, including video or video stills, taken of Residents while in the common areas of the Residential Community or at any events sponsored by the Residential Community. Residents hereby grant Owner, and any of Owner's affiliates, successors or anyone else authorized by Owner, the irrevocable and unrestricted right and permission to copyright, in its own name or otherwise, the unlimited use of Residents' image, without restriction as to changes or alterations, made through any medium, for any legal purpose whatsoever. Residents also consent to the use of any printed matter in conjunction therewith. Residents hereby waive any right to inspect or approve the finished product and the advertising copy or other matter that may be used in connection therewith or the use to which it may be applied. Residents hereby release, discharge, and agree to hold harmless Owner and any of Owner's affiliates, successors or anyone else authorized by Owner, for all claims and demands arising out of or in connection with the use of the images taken of Residents, including without limitation any and all claims for libel, false light or invasion of privacy. 

On a rental agreement for a 12–month lease on a fucking 2-bedroom apartment. 
 

Rampop II wrote:

crumbsroom wrote:

Finished Dracula!
Spoiler: He dies.
 

LOL

Was it worth it?

I'm happy I finished it. And, trust me, by the time I resolved to wrap it all up, I knew it wasn't any fucking good. But there is so many books I can bail on before I have to start calling myself an illiterate. And this was the dividing line. Because if you can't finish Dracula.....
 

Read Please Kill Me again. I don't even know how many times I've read it by now. Three? Four? Five? And I always end up reading it really fast. Like eating one of those kid sized McDonald's hamburgers. You can't believe how fast it disappears. Especially when you're drunk.

It's possibly the greatest book ever written.
 

Rampop II wrote:

I'm trying to add Please Kill Me Again to my list after such resounding praise, but I can't find it. Too many other books with similar titles getting in the way. Who's the author?

You mean the Legs McNeil oral history of punk?

Also, can anyone recommend some entry–level Kafka? I'm a Kafka noob.

Most would probably stay to start with Metamorphosis, but I see no reason not to go straight to the best stuff: The Trial

Rock wrote:

Going through Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino. As expected, there are a bunch of crappy opinions thrown in there as asides, but most of his arguments are pretty solid and he’s a pretty entertaining writer to boot. (He writes about movies similarly to how he talks about them, but a bit less obnoxiously.) I am enjoying it.

I watched one segment of it on Youtube where he talks about Dirty Harry which almost has a MAGA vibe, although that may have partially been due to some of the montage editing that QT wasn't responsible for.  The main idea being that Harry was so successful due to pushback on all of the "scary" 60s movements like hippies and black power, etc.  In a montage of black power, they threw in a shot of Shaft for some reason.  And QT seems to have this notion, which I guess was a sincere theme from Hollywood, that the Manson Family was more of an epitome of hippies and LSD than an aberration of those things, and so naturally he feels the same about the Scorpio/Zodiac killer, despite the clear fact that the both Scorpio/Zodiac, in real life and depicted in the film, were violent reactions to things like free love and black people as much as QT attributes this to Harry Callahan.  And that doppleganger between Harry and the criminals has already been essayed primarily and explicitly in its sequel but also by critics like Jonathan Rosenbaum.

I hate to judge it just on one "chapter", but I wasn't too impressed.

The full text of the SCOTUS immunity decision.

OK, I'm less horrified now that I've read it. Well, I've read Roberts' part, anyway. It's a slap in the face, and it's shitty, but it's not the crowning of the president, nor is it the end of democracy. Mostly it's just another dodge, a delay wrapped in a request for clarification, depending on how you look at it. They did specifically point out that the president is free to lean on his attorney general if he wants, can fire or threaten to fire him if he wants, and can launch an investigation into whomever he pleases, therefore his dealings with his AG are immune from prosecution. But they didn't say Trump was off the hook for the fake elector scheme. They only said he's free to bully his AG over it. As for most everything else Trump is charged with, SCOTUS has kicked the rest of it it back down to the lower court for clarification. They talk a decent game, eg. this will set one of the most monumental precedents in the nation's history so you've got to be ultra–specific on paper about what things you're charging him with that are not protected under his broad constitutional powers and won't inadvertently clip the wings of future presidents in unintended ways. The decision is long–winded but not overly complicated, just redundant. And with a strong whiff of smokescreen. But they indicate that they're not beyond finding Trump guiltiy for something, and that the lower court might still have time to clarify what exactly they want to charge him with that falls safely outside the scope of presidential authority. 
Thomas added something nit–picking the legitimacy of the special counsel. I skimmed it.
I'm halfway through Barrett and I'm taking a break. Unless there are any stark surprises, the president has not been crowned emperor. 

It's been quite a while since I've read a book that wasn't related to film or music history this year, so in the last week or so, I've dug into Little Demon in the City of Light, one of the recent literary trends of a nonfiction book written as a novel (Killers of the Flower Moon is another example of the style).  The true-life tale involves what is purported to be the first case of the use of hypnotism as a defense plea in a murder case, which occurred in belle epoche Paris 1889-90.  I'm about halfway through it.  It's a colorful look at the era, starting with the Exposition Universelle which debuted the Eiffel Tower.  So much detail in fact that I'm disappointed, typical of this subgenre, in the book's lack of an index, normally standard in nonfiction books.

One striking aspect of the Parisian culture of the time is in its burgeoning sensationalist newspaper industry, tabloids stoked in base instincts.  It reveals a very similar culture to our reality-TV culture today.  One particularly amusing  attraction was the Paris Morgue, which surprisingly became a popular venue for prime-time entertainment.  Couples would go on a date, and view the recently exhumed anonymous corpses dredged from rivers and alleyways, under the ostensible rationale by the morgue that the public might be able to help identify the bodies.

A daily stream of visitors strolled through the morgue's exhibit room where unidentified children pulled from the Seine or unknown women murdered in back alleys were laid out for viewing - sometimes with touching scenic effects....

The morgue's spectators came from every social strata - workmen, grandes dames, tourists, all strolled by for a look.  :All day long a multitude of the curious, of the most diverse ages, elbow and jostle one another from eight in the morning untill nightfall in the public gallery", wrote a contemporary medical inspector,  Neighborhood merchants relied on the steady stream of gawkers.  Children broke off their games in the street to dash inside on the arrival of the latest corpse.  Commentators described the morgue as theater for the masses.  "It is nothing but a spectacle a sensation, permanent and free, where the playbill changes every day", explained a journalist.